During the past three semesters in College Park Scholars, I have learned a lot in terms of fundamental scientific practice and how it applies to global change. Through group projects, practicum presentations, field trips, service projects and more, I have learned to apprectiate the scientfic method and how it can be used ethically to improve living and halt climate change. Scholars has also made me aware of areas I need to improve upon during my time in college. For example, critical thinking is a skill that needs to be practiced and learned. College Park Scholars has taught me some of the failures of critical thinking, which has allowed me to notice when I succumb to these failures so I can act quickly to correct them. For example, there have been lots of instances of the appeal to authority logical fallacy, or times when I have blindly acted on advice that I recieved from an authority figure like a professor or academic advisor that proved to be completely useless and nonsensical. When choosing my classes for upcoming semesters, my academic advisors have historically given poor advice on which classes made the most sense to take, leading me to choose classes that were very hard to balance with one another due to their workload. I think I have noticed and addressed this fault for the most part, as I always do my own research and read class and professor reviews before signing up for classes. One of these classes actually fit into the SGC supporting course category, and was CHEM 134. I was lead to believe this class was easy and made a manageable workload since it was a one credit class to be paired with CHEM131 and count for CHEM135 as part of the general engineering requirments. CHEM134 was one of the hardest and most brutal classes I have ever taken, not because the material was especially difficult, but because the professor barely taught us anything and blamed our lack of knowledge on not having prerequestites, even though we all did and she just had no patience to go over new material in depth. In SGC many of the topics presented have been informative and interesting, but one that really resonated with me is how the sustainable future will have to be built and engineered in such a way that updates our current infrastructure. This would include and new power grid built on renewable energy, green buildings, permeable concrete roads, etc. This really connected me to my major (Mechanical Engineering) because SGC had now presented me with a way to use my education to make a real difference in combating climate change and CO2 emmissions. I now feel like having an engineering degree will be extremely helpful in applying the science behind global climate change to build a better and more sustainable future. An additional SGC supporting course that strengthened the bond with my major, previously established in the SGC colloqium, was PHYS270, which briefly touched on how global warming is caused. This class was challenging but fair and informative, showing my the applications of my major by teaching me the fundamental science behind everything that engineers do requiring light, electricty, and magnetism. Scholars was a great tool, not only for learning, but for connecting me with my peers and establishing a long lasting friendship with many people in SGC. This is because scholars is not only an learning program, but also a living program. During my freshman year, I lived down the hall from many people in my scholars colloqium, which resulted in me becoming very close with them. Since my scholars program was science based, all the friends I made in scholars took a lot of the same classes I did during freshman year. This gave me a resource to turn to when studying or completing projects, which enhanced my collaboration skills and helped me succeed in many of my classes. In addition to meeting new people in scholars that ultimately aided in my learning, the colloqium itself aided in learning by emphasizing the importance of having a genuine interest in learning and not getting into a lazy mindset, which might be comfortable, but effectivley stagnates a persons intellectual growth. In terms of the community service aspect of the scholars program, I don't think as much importance was placed on it. I contributed early on by going to service day and helped clean up invasive plant species, however in the semesters after I don't think I felt the need to take advantage of any other community service opportunities. I went on a few field trips, which I enjoyed a lot, specifically the field trip the Natural Historuy Museum in DC. However, I wouldn't say I necessarily "contributed" to SGC in any meaningful way. Of course I participated in colloqium and made an effort in discussion and on group projects, but I always proitized my schoolwork and social circle over the many out-of-colloquim optional and seemingly unimportant scholars community activies. While scholars did provide a space and opportunity to surround myself with people with differing opinion and views, I didn't really end up being friends with many people who had drastically or fundamentally different views or opinions from me. I think often, it's hard and/or exhausting to make the effort to be around people who challenge your beliefs, and while I understand that it is necessary and builds a well rounded world view, this is one thing I need to improve at and get more comfortable with doing. This is not to say I wasn't challenged in any way by my friends, because I was, especially about my attitude concerning certain things in my personal life. However on a fundamental level, my friends and many others who I chose to get to know are very similar to me and didn't challenge me in anyway that changed my life or flipped my view on any given topic. Finally, I would say that the scholars experience definitely informed my future. I would say that I focused more on the social aspect to scholars, and intend to keep the friendships I have made for a very long time. Additionally, many of the lessons in colloquim have informed my career path and I am certain that I want to the apply sustainable engineering practices that I have learned in scholars to any industry or field that I pursue in the years to come.
Back to Home Page